A letter home from Everyman A. Broad

Like so many of my buddies that have been serving overseas, I am writing to you to tell you that our relationship is nearing its end. It may not happen today, it may not happen tomorrow, but it is going to come to an end.

I address you by the masculine nickname which we have come to use for you, which is much easier for me. Your real name that you were given at your birth, is so beautiful and has so much meaning and brings such feelings of love and admiration–that I cannot bear to use it. Perhaps as you changed, people stopped using your full name—they used that nickname, they used your last name, they used your middle name, and they used your initials. Why have people stopped using your first name? It was all so beautiful, it symbolized at your birth what a wonderful thing you could have been.

You don’t deserve it, but I’ll give you the explanation why.

I used to ignore how you treated others. It wasn’t necessary for me to force you to act as I would have expected someone in my family. I had trusted you and I had assumed that you would take responsibility for your actions as a member of my family. As I became more aware of what you were doing, I had still held on to you. I justified your actions to my friends. I defended your honor, even when you had none. As your actions became more blatant to me, I laughed them off in a way that was meant to show my friends that I didn’t care because I wasn’t worried.

But recently, I have found out, that your mean-spirited, self-centered actions had been turned on me. You conspired with your evil and mean-spirited nearest friends, and you developed a plan to come after me. You tricked a large number of people in order to make it happen. You continue to bully and lie others so that you can get to me.

You’ve taken away my rights as a human. What should have been unalienable rights, unquestionably given to all individuals, was taken away by you. These rights should have been allowed to me without question, but it seems that, in order for me to have my rights as a person, that I need to persuade the whole damn country. At least, I have to persuade a few hundred people that my rights must be respected by you.

How do I do that? Do I start some massive campaign to persuade the masses for my own rights in our relationship? These hundreds of people that are involved in this decision—they are all under your influence, via your closest and nearest and most evil mean-spirited friends. When they are all out shit-talking me to every damn person in the world, how the heck do I stand a chance to influence them? You’ve taken all of the power of all of the resources and you’ve turned it against me.

Since I first learned what you have been trying to do to me, I have been trying to change you. But you won’t listen. I’ve been forced to communicate through your hundreds of friends. And you’ve told all of your mean and dirty friends to ignore me. I’ve worked and worked and worked to change you. I’ve invested countless hours trying to change you, but it is becoming obvious that it is fruitless, and you are heartless to the core. I am getting really, really tired. Soon, it simply will not be possible to try to change you.

It’s hard to believe, with the way you treat me, that I’ve stayed with you this long. You are only interested in taking everything I have. The only reason that I have had to stay with you is that you have taken possession of my home. If I want to stay in my own home—the place where my family has called home for 140 years, I need to pay my allegiance to you.

Each year, I’ve spent hundreds of hours, working just for you. I file your papers, I sign them, I swear by them, and I hope each year that you like them. But it’s never enough–every year you just want more-more-more.

I’ve wanted to grow as a person, but all you have done has held me back. If I want to grow as a person, I must pay my penance to you—more, more, more. More papers. More explanations. I will never be free to simply make the total relationship for all of us better. You just want more of a smaller and smaller pie.

There was once a time, where you were a leader of our family home. However, til today, you have become nothing better than a mean and dirty landlord.

I suppose you can justify your actions. You’ve taken the title on my home. You and your dirty friends have gambled away the family savings. You’ve created your own Ponzi—an airplane scheme branching out to 300 million people. And now the Ponzi scheme is faltering—you are looking in the darkest places to find a solution, and you remembered me. You believe that getting my money is going to bail out your entire Ponzi. I hate to tell you sweetheart, but my total assets might keep your Ponzi scheme going for another 1.5 seconds.

You really should be completely and totally ashamed of yourself. When you were born, your parents had made everything possible for you to be the physical and moral head of the household. But you’ve done everything your parents have said you shouldn’t do. And no one has had the resolve to stop you.

With your suspicious and mean demeaner, certainly you will accuse me of wanting to proceed with something provocative towards you. This, again, is one of your traits, assuming that I might do something based upon some presumption you have created.

Because now, under your new rules, I must prove my innocence to you, I can assure you that I have nothing in my moral character or capacity to create any harm to anyone. It is part of my moral character to not involve myself in something such. You need not send your evil friends after me to ensure that I will do as I have always taught myself to do.

I really would prefer that you leave my family home, and allow my family to take back its possession. I realize that this is most likely not to happen. I realize that, logically, I should give up my home, and sever my relationship with you. I know that I should do it earlier rather than later, so as not to suffer the consequences of your wrath.

I may hold out longer, in hopes that you will become a better person, so that I can return to my home. I sincerely doubt that this will happen. So, at some time, you will wake up, and you will find out that I am gone forever.

I know that there are others—many many others. You need them for your Ponzi. I can imagine that the others will suffer as I have. The longer they hold on to you, the more they too will lose.

For what it once was. It is inevitable that I will have no choice, but to say goodbye, forever.